WHO'LL BE THE NEXT CJ?

Under the Constitution, the President has until August 20 to appoint a new Chief Justice, or 90 days after May 22, the date former Justice Renato Corona is considered as dismissed.  The Judicial and Bar Council, to be chaired by Justice Antonio Carpio in lieu of Coronal, will convene in due course to prepare a list of at least three (3) nominees for the  President to choose from.  The President cannot appoint anybody outside of the list but can ask for additional  nominees.

As things are, several  names have already been mentioned in the news.  Foremost amongst them is of course Justice Carptio who, as everybody knows, has been the President's favorite.  DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima, Sen. Franklin Drilon and BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares have also been mentioned.  One wonders if Carpio and De Lima would not find it outside of delicadeza to include their own names among the nominees, since they are both members of Judicial and Bar Council.  On the other hand, several senators have expressed their vocal objection against the appointment as next Chief Justice of people who are either known political allies of the President or who participated during the impeachment trials of Corona.  Drilon and Henares belong to this group. 

Even as everything will solely depend on the President's final choice, he also need not simply disregard the above considerations for the sake of good government.  Some says nothing can prevent him from appointing somebody who is totally an outsider, such as Jose Yulo who used to be Speaker of the House when he replaced Abad Santos as CJ during the Japanese occupation.  I would like to think, however, that there are several equally qualified present Justices to choose from, if only to forestall any demoralization in the ranks.

The President may not admit it but the plain truth is he personally worked for the impeachment of Corona because he really wanted Carpio who, anyway, was more senior than Corona, to be the successor of  former CJ Reynato Puno.  Should Carpio again be bypassed, methinks the President would be creating another Corona in the Supreme Court.  I wish the President all the good luck there is in planet Earth when he appoints a new Chief Justice.